Emerging out of a crumbling flank of earth is lifted from Adrienne Rich’s poem “Power”, first published in 1977 as a tribute to the Polish-French scientist Marie Curie and her unparalleled contribution to Science. Both Rich and Curie lived through periods where women were heavily marginalized and overshadowed by their male peers. To this day, the prevalence of gender-based oppression of women, whether in violent or non-violent forms, remains a struggle that is present across the world. Hence, the exhibition is a practice of solidarity among female artists born in 1989 and after, a turning point in the drastic change in the world’s balance of power, marking the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the Philippines, a milestone labor act prohibiting lesser compensation for women for work of equal value was approved the same year.
With more than thirty artists contributing to this exhibition, we hope that these narratives will somehow overturn the wounds of becoming a woman. To rise and heal from the inherited collective and generational trauma of living inside patriarchal structures and unlearn any internalized sexism and misogyny. Together, we can relentlessly emerge from the crumbling flank of discrimination and inequality.
Curated by Gwen Bautista
